“Furniture for Every Budget” — that’s the marketing strategy behind Phoenix-based Pruitt’s Fine Furniture when it opens its store in Prescott Valley in early March. Christy Smith, General Manager for Pruitt’s, explains, “Because we’re a family-owned business, we’re able to keep our margins low and provide a huge inventory with a full range of options for buyers.”
That range will include furniture for struggling college students to furnishings for a young married couple. It also will offer furniture for middle-class families with children, all the way up to truly upscale name-brand home furnishings for custom-built luxury homes.
“We will carry all styles, traditional, contemporary, rustic and modern, for we want to appeal to buyers throughout central and northern Arizona,” Smith says. The store will carry a large inventory of outdoor and patio furniture “to meet the lifestyle that is so appealing in the Quad City area,” she says. Pruitt’s has been in the Valley of the Sun for more than 60 years.
The family-owned business, with its main store in Phoenix, purchased the long-vacant Kmart at 7550 Highway 69 this past December. It immediately began renovation so the second store could open as soon as possible.
Smith, an Arizona native and graduate of Arizona State University, had been a practicing real estate transactional attorney with a multistate clientele before becoming general manager for Pruitt’s. Smith and her husband Brent, who serves as the operations consultant overseeing construction and logistics for the 100,000-square-foot building, spent several days a week in Prescott Valley. They supervised the extensive remodeling necessary to accommodate the multimillion-dollar inventory.
“We will have a significant inventory ready to move into the Prescott Valley store from our Phoenix warehouse in February, and we will be sending delivery trucks daily to keep the new store fully stocked,” she explains.
The building, which is larger than two football fields under a single roof, is being totally renovated. Contractors have laid a new roof and the interior has been stripped to bare walls, exposed ceilings and concrete floors.
Brent Smith said Jebco Construction Co. of Prescott is the main contractor and is using local labor and local materials as much as possible in the renovation of the concrete block-wall building. He says the floors, ceilings and walls will be completely refurbished and that plans include a small coffee shop-type restaurant inside the store near the front entrance.
The Smiths noted that when open, Pruitt’s in Prescott Valley will be the largest furniture store in the northern part of the state. When operative, it will employ more than 20 people, ranging from stocking services to sales, customer service and management.
Those interested in applying for jobs at Pruitts are asked to contract Smith at Christy@pruitts.com.
